The world was suffocating. Ash and thick black smoke cloaked the atmosphere and cast the world below into ominous darkness. An Imperial army seeped over the landscape, an assortment of assault droids, soldiers, and Sith, leaving a path of obliteration and chaos in their wake. 

Alderaan was not without defences, but these proved futile against the sheer size of the attacking force that ripped through defending soldiers and burned entire cities to the ground. 

 Despite a Republic victory  under Jace Malcolm, the once tranquil world was now soaked in blood, it's history forever stained by the catastrophic event.

The Great Galactic war raged on between the Sith Empire and the Republic for years to come, leaving planets desolated and civilisations devoured in its wake. Alderaan was only one example, the list of planets that bore the wrath of the war seemingly endless. 

The war had reigned for long enough. New powers were destined to annihilate  both Republic and Sith forces in one simple act of superiority, to cast the galaxy into revolution under the command of a single entity. 

A time of reckoning would soon begin. 

Clarke awoke with a start, wincing as the insistent glow of light seared her eyes painfully. Her body felt slow, sluggish as she brought a hand to her face as a shield against the offending sensation. 

What the hell was going on?

A distant voice echoed into existence, growing louder in volume until an automatic door slid open and the sentence fell away into stunned silence when Bellamy witnessed his friend conscious for the first time in days. 

"You're finally awake!' he breathed, almost unable to believe his eyes. 

Clarke kept her eyes screwed shut as her entire body rejecting the sudden onslaught of sensation, although it was a vague comfort to know that she was safe, despite the major headache that was beginning to form in her skull. 

"We were worried about you," Bellamy continued, a huge smile breaking through his initial surprise when he perched at the foot of her bed. "How do you feel?"

With pain burning in every limb, Clarke let her arm fall back to her side and lifted her head to squint intently at her excitable friend. She felt awful, as if it wasn't obvious.

"What the hell happened?" she muttered, every syllable dragging painfully from her lips as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. 

The room was white, plain and boring, with not even a splash of colour to bring joy to the scene. She was lying on a bed which appeared to be one of the few items existing within the four walls. A small table lay to her left, although its gleaming surface was void of any decoration. 

"What do you remember?" 

Clarke cast her mind back, sorting through the jumble of confused images to identify her most recent memory. She had been with Lexa, in the middle of nowhere for whatever reason. Logical reasoning escaped her tired thoughts and she frowned questioningly at her friend. 

"We traced the Sith ship to Alderaan," Bellamy began, propping himself back on one arm to narrate the story. "But neither you or Lexa were anywhere to be found."

Clarke tensed instantly. Alderaan. She had just dreamt of Alderaan, hadn't she? It couldn't have been a coincidence. 

"That's when a Republic ship arrived and interrupted our search, but I'll get back to that later," Bellamy continued, mentally calculating how to communicate the confusing timeline. "Anyway, for the sake of clarity, it turns out that the local security forces had identified the unapproved landing and taken you into holding. You were unconscious the entire time but they treated you well."

Clarke stared up at the dull ceiling, trying to piece the events together in her head. She recalled arguing with the Jedi, furious at the prospect of abandonment but then Lexa's face had been all she could see before falling into darkness. 

"What did she do to me?" the blonde croaked, refusing to move until her body stopped fighting her with every motion. 

The question was met with a beat of silence. 

"We don't actually know," Bellamy admitted hesitantly, "but you can understand why we're so pleased to see you awake."

"We?" 

The blonde girl raised lifted her head even as she asked the question, remembering that Bellamy had been talking to someone when he had arrived. 

"It's nice to finally meet you in person Clarke," Master Eadon said politely from his position in the doorway, Jedi robes sweeping across his slim figure. "Despite the dire circumstances."

The man's face was vaguely familiar to Clarke and her confusion couldn't have been more expressive. 

"I've heard a lot of things about you," the Jedi continued, his gentle gaze observing the fragile woman before he stepped further into the room. "Lexa spoke highly of you."

Hearing the Jedi's name sent a spark through the blonde's body and she briefly forgot her tiredness, pushing herself into an upright position on the bed as her eyes widened. 

"Master Eadon," she said in a hushed whisper, remembering countless conversations with Lexa about her former master. He had been tasked with keeping the artefact safe after all, although apparently with limited success.  

"When I heard of your unfortunate circumstance, I wanted to help in any way possible," Eadon continued, his calm aura a welcome balance to the blonde's apprehension. 

The Jedi briefly explained that she had been transported to Coruscant to be held in a Republic facility whilst they waited for Clarke to regain consciousness, although many had doubted that it was even possible. They could not decipher exactly what had been done to elicit such a state of unresponsiveness but only the darkest of powers would strive to achieve such a thing. 

"Lexa is a danger to both us and herself if we don't help her," the Jedi confirmed, having felt the holocron's power before and the pure evil that dwelt in it's heart. "Whoever created the Sith artefact held ideologies that should not be upheld. It has to end."

Clarke couldn't have agreed more and she was slowly beginning to form a plan of attack. There was a way of getting through to the Jedi, of breaking the dark hold over her, but it just wasn't quite clear enough yet.

"Tell me, what did you see?" the elderly man uttered, standing with a thoughtful expression as the girl recalled every detail of the horrific scenes. Alderaan had been one of many planets devastated by the war and she had glimpsed hundreds of ruined civilisations.  Her skin crawled at the recollection, shaking her head to clear the ravaged scenes from her mind. 

"Perhaps it was a glimpse of the visions that she mentioned, drawn into existence by the darkness playing on her own memories and experiences," the Jedi offered, summoning his extensive knowledge of the Sith and their notorious artefacts to solve this puzzling situation.

Whatever entity had placed such dark concepts within the holocron had intended their wishes to be carried out with devastating effect, even after their demise. If there were indeed more of these holocron's in existence, then they had to be destroyed before the dark power could delve even further throughout the galaxy. 

Lexa had once told the blonde of her time on Alderaan at the height of the war, how she had witnessed the devastation herself and been taken prisoner by the Sith. It was easy to imagine how such emotional events would be inspired by darkness, morphed to accentuate all that was dark and cruel in the world.

"What will you do now?" Master Eadon inquired, although he could already predict the girls response from the shine of determination in the blue eyes. Lexa had spoken openly of the smuggler's stubborn nature many times before, but the slight smile that played on her lips betrayed the disapproving tone with which she spoke.  

"Now, I find a way to save her."

Clarke may have felt rough, but her discomfort was nothing compared to the renewed vigour in her chest at the prospect of saving the Jedi. The solution was slowly beginning to form, thin threads weaving together in her mind until finally a strategy would reveal itself. 

She had been delayed considerably by the Jedi's mind trick and it would be difficult to trace her movements, but Clarke was more hopeful than ever before. 

"She was right," Master Eadon said with a gentle smile as he watched the young woman stand with great effort. "You're special. Very few people would be willing to risk their lives in this situation, but the bond between you remains strong. Embrace it and use it to bring her back."

Clarke's heart throbbed painfully at the kind words, hoping that one day she would get the chance to tell Lexa just how much she meant to her. There was an inescapable bond between them and it might just be the key to saving her. 

Eadon inclined his head and bid the girl farewell, wishing her the best of luck with the foreboding task. She had more chance than any of them at succeeding and he was willing to bet that her efforts would not go unrewarded. 

Tired of the white walls and depressing surroundings, Clarke was more than ready to leave this awful room behind but was forced to a stop when Bellamy stepped hurriedly into her path, apprehensively blocking her exit. 

"The Republic ship that I mentioned earlier?" he began after a hesitant pause, wondering how to break the bad news. "It was Quill and he's not pleased with us. Not even close."

Clarke sighed and dropped her head, wondering when the man would ever be anything less than a nuisance. She had last interacted with him months earlier, when he had agreed to wipe the false charges from her record on the condition that she undertake a vital mission for the Republic. 

He would be fully aware of her failure by now and she could already picture his sneering glee as he plotted further misery for his least favourite smuggler. The dislike was certainly mutual. 

Saving Lexa was the only thing that mattered to the blonde now and if she had to go through the Republic Officer to get to her, then it wasn't even a question of whether she would try. Clarke nodded in acknowledgement and swept past her friend, not missing a step when he called after her. 

"Where are you going?"

"To get the hell out of here."

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Quill was stationed in his excessively large office, a similarly barren environment adorned with only the basic necessities. It was very fitting now that Clarke thought about it, more than suitable for the cold composure that the Lieutenant displayed with such pride.  

"Ah, you're finally awake," he noted calmly when Clarke stepped into the office without even bothering to knock, continuing to engage intently with his data pad without so much as a glance up at the impatient smuggler. 

"Yep, and I can see that you're incredibly busy so if you don't mind, I'll be off. We both have more important matters to attend," Clarke suggested, barely taking a step away from the desk before Quill's sharp tone called for an end to the display of disrespect.  

"Not so fast," he said curtly, abandoning the data pad on the shining surface to pierce the blonde with an inscrutable stare. "As last I recall, you were sent on a key mission to prove your loyalty to the Republic and avoid a lengthy prison sentence."

It was true. Clarke had been tasked with retrieving intelligence from a Republic Spy and she had worked undercover for months in some shady dive just for the whole spectacle to take a turn for the worse when she had narrowly avoided being killed during an unexpected ambush, only to be kidnapped by a Sith Lord and experience an even closer encounter with death. Not the greatest of achievements to date and an event that Clarke was keen to forget. 

The only perk of the entire situation had been the quality time spent with the Jedi, stirring up all kinds of emotions that had been carefully hidden beneath many layers of deflection and sarcasm. 

"Yeah, getting kidnapped and almost dying kind of got in the way of that one."

Quill's expression was as impassive as ever. 

"So in other words, you failed?"

"Well, it was difficult to extract intelligence from your spy when she died in a blaster fight," Clarke said transparently, willing the man to just get on with his conviction. No doubt he had a fate worse than prison waiting for her this time. 

"I expected more from you," the Lieutenant remarked, shaking his head with disappointment as if the blonde cared in the slightest what he thought of her. "I thought a dangerous criminal such as yourself would be more than adept for the job. It seems I was wrong."

Patience was difficult to come by as the irritating man droned on, his speech having very little effect on the impatient blonde who was on the verge of storming from the room before he could antagonise her further. 

She had been through a lot recently, and the Lieutenant's childish power plays were the least of her concerns. 

"I'm sure you're aware of my predicament which is why I don't give a crap about your drivelling lectures, so do us both a favour and shut the hell up," Clarke snapped, coming to the conclusion that storming out of the room would indeed make her feel a whole lot better.  

She spun on her heel and marched from the office, ignoring the Lieutenant's echoing voice as he called for her to stop at once. Not likely. 

"Clarke!" he cried, hurrying from his office with an exasperated frown to follow the head strong woman. "You'll want to hear this."

Clarke almost continued with her dramatic exit, but something in the man's voice urged her to hear him out and she reluctantly stopped at the end of the corridor. 

Rather than lunge for the exit, she swivelled to face the persistent man with unbridled suspicion. "What?"

"Taking into account the unfortunate circumstances and your cooperation with the allocated task," the Lieutenant said reluctantly, straightening to his full height as he addressed the blonde. "The Republic deem you free from incarceration and will uphold their word. Your record will be wiped and the false charges against you dropped."

Clarke could hardly believe what she was hearing, her mouth opening and closing a few times as she sought to find the correct response. 

"Thank you," she finally managed to utter, still processing the prospect of a future in which she was no longer hunted as a bounty or harassed by the Republic. It was a fresh start, long overdue but now a reality. 

Her eyes may have been deceiving her but she could have sworn that there was a glimpse of sympathy in his previously cold gaze. When had he ever displayed any emotion other than contempt towards the world? It was unheard of. 

Perhaps her initial  assumptions about the man had been incorrect. If there was hope for Quill then there was hope for anyone. 

"Besides, Master Eadon gave you such a redeeming reference that it was almost impossible to refuse," he sniffed, a sneer curling his lips as if disgusted that he had even entertained any concept of civility with the smuggler, and just like that any vision of redeeming qualities was quashed along with Clarke's patience. 

"It was a pleasure knowing you, Lieutenant," she growled scornfully, thanking all the stars that she would no longer be dealing with this wretched man. 

"I can't say it was a pleasure, but I do hope you never cross my path again," Quill retorted, bringing their unwanted interaction to an end with a brief nod. "Good luck with your task."

Clarke inclined her head before leaving the strange man to his shining complex on Coruscant, her heart soaring as she processed the good news. She was more confident than ever that she would locate the Jedi and vanquish the corruption in her heart, bringing her back to normality and marking the beginning of better times. A fresh start for both of them without the likes of Quill lurking around every corner to sabotage their every move. 

A smile curled her lips as she swept out of the Republic complex, hopes for their future showering her with optimism, they deserved it more than ever before.  They would be happy again, she would make sure of that, but first she had to actually find the Jedi and she would require the crew's support if she were to succeed. 

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Lexa watched the galaxy flash by in a whirl of blue light, settled back into the captains chair of her newly acquired ship which tore through hyperspace towards her next destination. Her thoughts remained resolutely focused on the blonde smuggler despite her frequent attempts to think of something else, anything else. 

Their last encounter had left a stir of unease in the woman's chest, a new sensation that burnt alongside the ever evolving darkness at her very core. Impossible to ignore and harder still to comprehend. 

She wondered whether the girl had awoken from her trance yet, not that it mattered either way. Lexa had gifted Clarke with only a snapshot of the newfound clarity that had descended upon her since the reawakening. A brief glimpse of the corrupt forces that swept through this galaxy unhindered. They would not continue their campaign of terror for long, not if she was successful at retrieving the holocron's. 

With their combined power she could enlighten the rest of the galaxy and rise to greatness, unhindered by the restrictive rules of governments and councils. There would be only her rule, uniting the galaxy with her vision of prosperity. Clarke would one day appreciate what she was striving to achieve, the girl just had to open herself to the truth. It wouldn't be long before they stood united at the dawn of a new age. 

The Jedi glanced impatiently at the console before letting her head rest back against the worn material as the flickering lights danced along the display. She had all the time in the world. The first holocron had been located with only moderate difficulty but soon she would have all three artefacts in her possession upon which time she would be invincible. 

A slight smile curved her lips at the prospect. It was a pleasant thought, one soon to be a reality.

Her ship continued its advance through hyperspace, carving a path towards the unknown regions as the rest of the galaxy remained acutely unaware of the prevailing danger.  

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